Given how many other things I tried, I could spend a lifetime going round the internet finding all the fora to post on "IT DOESN'T WORK". Can't imagine why I'd want to spend my time doing that. But wherever you go, there you are.

So michmjon: I'm glad you are sober and hope you are happy. Our experience is that working the programme leads to freedom. If you want to try that, you're always welcome here.

Another reminder that Alcoholics don't need any help to pick up resentments. The traditions are there for a reason.

Oliver"In exchange for bottle and hangover, I have been given the keys to the kingdom."

NO. To turn one's personal problems over to someone or something else is not the answer. It's never the answer. It's your problem and your problem alone. It's up to you to make the decision to solve the problem. I was in AA for almost a year and saw the results of saying "I can't solve my own problems. I have to surrender to an almighty ghost in the sky, for I don't have the strength to do it on my own." You get stuck in a rut of being addicted to going to meetings because you believe that you are weak- you just can't grasp sobriety because you blame it on some "allergy," some affliction that you have no control over. Here's the news, my friend. You drank too much and you liked it. It was an escape from a world you were afraid to face without a bottle in your hand. Man up. Woman up. It's your life and what you do with it is a direct result of YOUR actions. If you want to rot in a bottle, it's your fault, your problem and there isn't any God, Religion or other person that will help you. Just make the decision and follow through with it.

The one person YOU can never get away from is YOU. Walking out of a Meeting because of something or someone doesn't conform to Your ideas, well You walked out with Your problem.

Of course Not drinking is a matter of Never opening and drinking Alcohol. But My problem was never the Drink, but Why I drank time and time again, even knowing the outcome would be bad.

So if You want Sobriety, there is a Program, if you want to stay Dry, don't open the Bottle.

michmjon wrote:It's been well over a month since I replied to this post and over six weeks since I attended a meeting. Here I my thoughts.

I remain strong and sober. I have no desire to drink alcohol ever again. Why? Because I know what it will do to my life if I do.

Did a "Higher Power" play any part of this?

NO. To turn one's personal problems over to someone or something else is not the answer. It's never the answer. It's your problem and your problem alone. It's up to you to make the decision to solve the problem. I was in AA for almost a year and saw the results of saying "I can't solve my own problems. I have to surrender to an almighty ghost in the sky, for I don't have the strength to do it on my own." You get stuck in a rut of being addicted to going to meetings because you believe that you are weak- you just can't grasp sobriety because you blame it on some "allergy," some affliction that you have no control over. Here's the news, my friend. You drank too much and you liked it. It was an escape from a world you were afraid to face without a bottle in your hand. Man up. Woman up. It's your life and what you do with it is a direct result of YOUR actions. If you want to rot in a bottle, it's your fault, your problem and there isn't any God, Religion or other person that will help you. Just make the decision and follow through with it.

No one else can help you recover. No higher power, no God, no Group, no meeting. Only you. You made the decision to pick up the bottle. You make the decision to never pick it up again.

If you ever decide to try AA again, we'll still be here and welcome you. Be sure to continue to check in and let us know how it's going.

michmjon wrote:It's been well over a month since I replied to this post and over six weeks since I attended a meeting. Here I my thoughts.

I remain strong and sober. I have no desire to drink alcohol ever again. Why? Because I know what it will do to my life if I do.

Did a "Higher Power" play any part of this?

NO. To turn one's personal problems over to someone or something else is not the answer. It's never the answer. It's your problem and your problem alone. It's up to you to make the decision to solve the problem. I was in AA for almost a year and saw the results of saying "I can't solve my own problems. I have to surrender to an almighty ghost in the sky, for I don't have the strength to do it on my own." You get stuck in a rut of being addicted to going to meetings because you believe that you are weak- you just can't grasp sobriety because you blame it on some "allergy," some affliction that you have no control over. Here's the news, my friend. You drank too much and you liked it. It was an escape from a world you were afraid to face without a bottle in your hand. Man up. Woman up. It's your life and what you do with it is a direct result of YOUR actions. If you want to rot in a bottle, it's your fault, your problem and there isn't any God, Religion or other person that will help you. Just make the decision and follow through with it.

No one else can help you recover. No higher power, no God, no Group, no meeting. Only you. You made the decision to pick up the bottle. You make the decision to never pick it up again.

I have only skimmed part of this thread, but I can say from experience that not all meetings are the same and I have walked away permanently from a few over the years. I have also walked out of meetings for various reasons. The most offensive to me are when speaker's meetings, "open talks" her in MI, become a drug talk without out any alcohol to swallow it with.

Otherwise we are talking about the 3rd step - turning your will and life over to the care of God as we understand him. This is a misunderstood step. As the 3rd step prayer evidences, we are doing more than just making a decision. Still, a decision to take action is a commitment to that action until a decision to do otherwise is made.

God isn't going to run our lives per se. He won't feed, cloth, or take us to the bathroom if we just sit in our AA chair. We have to go about our day and lives in the most sober way possible knowing that in his own way, if we are open to it, God will guide us through our lives. And when we have a situation and we have done everything we can, or unable to do anything at all, we "turn it over to God" usually in a prayer and prepare ourselves to accept the outcome, good, bad, or indifferent.

I don't agree that nobody can help us recover. AA is a "we" program, not a "me" program. Some will say that the program is "selfish", but they misunderstand that we work on our"self" by being unselfish, humble if you will. I wouldn't be sober without the others in the program no matter how maddening, both irritating and insane, they are. Alcoholism has been described as a dis-ease of relationships. You are experiencing in part the learning of how to be social. We alcoholics were uncomfortable in our own skin when we came in and that doesn't go away over night. At least some of us were worse than you when we came in. So if we can get sober, so can you. Please stick around until the miracle happens! That goes for everyone else, there is hope!